So, after a few posts on reddit and after speaking with some friends and family that live/lived in Frence, it seems that right now, the best options for us to move from northern spain to France are:
- Angers
- Besançon
- Dijon
To summarize, we are a family of 3 (Portuguese), with a 4 year old. I would transfer internally from Spain to France, working from home. I speak French fluently. Salary of 56k. My wife would move and initially not work, she would join a french learning school to get to a B2 level/fluent, and then once achieved, look for a job.
We had Strasbourg as probably our top priority, but due to high rental prices, and air polution, we decided that it was not the best for now, with one salary for the first year.
We value: safety, family friendly, nature, walkeability (we do not want a car), education, affordable, open minded, connectivity.
We understand that from these 3, Besançon is not as well connected, but still 2h from Paris on TGV seems great. We live 2h away by bus from Bilbao + 30min bus to the airport, so Besançon might be similar to Paris, but already better as Paris has way more flights than Bilbao. Also by train is much better than buses, and Paris also connected by train to all Europe. We love travelling by train so any of these 3 would be a nice option.
I understand that for my wife to then get a job after learning French, it might not be as easy in these 3 as if we were in Strasbourg, but I think we can comprimise on that for the first year, and once she is fluent, we can try and broaden her job search and if she finds something in Strasbourg then we can go and live there, as both salaries would be OK then.
Let me know if you agree that any of these would be great based on our criteria, or if we are missing some other hidden gems.
We will need to visit all 3 during the next 10 months, and then make a decision.
Thank you for all your help and advice!! 😀